The much awaited hearing on the JNU controversy, in which its students' union leader Kanhaiya Kumar has been arrested, today witnessed a flurry of activity in the Delhi High Court where three separate courts dealt with the related petitions.
A jostling crowd of onlookers, litigants and media was seen moving from one court to another during the day amid unprecendented security arrangements within and outside the high court premises.
The centre of these developments was court number 29 where a bench of Justice Pratibha Rani took up Kanhaiya's bail plea for hearing at 10.30 am.
Simultaneously, two separate petitions, one by other two accused - Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya - and another seeking arrest of other five accused students were mentioned in court number two at 10.30 am before a division bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed which agreed to hear these pleas during the day itself.
Elaborate security arrangements were in place outside court number 29 where a metal detector was installed at the entrance.
When Kanhaiya's bail plea came up for hearing, only the concerned advocates and seven journalists were allowed to remain present inside the courtroom.
As the hearing of the bail plea concluded at around 10.40 am, focus shifted to court number two where these two pleas were mentioned.
After lunch, the petition of Khalid and Bhattacharya came up for hearing before Justice Pratibha Rani at 4 pm.
As the argument was going on, the petition seeking a direction to police to arrest the five students -- Khalid, Bhattacharya, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar and Rama Naga -- came up for hearing at court number 10 before Justice Manmohan at 4.30 pm.
While Justice Pratibha Rani posted hearing on Kanhaiya's bail plea and petitions of Khalid and Bhattacharya for tomorrow, another application was dismissed as withdrawan.
The security at the main entrance of high court was beefed up in wake of the violence at the Patiala House Courts here on February 15 and 17 during production of Kanhaiya before the trial court.
